Material fabricating machines occupy a significant role in modern industry and include, for example, machines which stamp, roll, form, cut and extrude various materials, to name a few available production techniques. One such type of machine, and a type to which the present invention is directed, receives an elongated strip of material at an entryway, advances the strip of material progressively through the machine and against laterally positioned forming elements to configure one or more longitudinal margins of the strip into desired useful cross-sections after which the strip is then discharged at an exit location. The material strips may be fed into such a machine either in discrete lengths or, as more is more typically the case, as a continuous fed from a coil. The formed strip is then cut into usable lengths by a shearing assembly after the formed member exits the machine. This type of machine is widely used to fabricate metal strips into useful shaped members such as gutter, roof panels, siding panels, etc.
Existing apparatus for fabricating elongated metal strips typically have a framework which supports a drive system for advancing the strip of metal through the machine, and machine forming elements are disposed along the pathway of the strip to configure the longitudinal margins of the strip into desired profiles. Normally in these machines, the profile forming elements are each independently mounted to the framework at selected locations so that the longitudinal margin of the strip is progressively bent into the desired shape. Sometimes, however, groups of forming elements are mounted together in forming station sets, for example, as described in the co-pending patent application, Ser. No. 07/909,362 by Coben et al. filed Jul. 6, 1992. Other examples may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,947,671 issued Aug. 14, 1990 to Lindstrom and U.S. Pat. No. 3,319,448 issued May 16, 1967 to Bottom.
Various drive assemblies are described in prior patents and are disclosed, for example, in the following list of patents:
______________________________________ Patent No. Inventor Issued ______________________________________ 1,346,899 Bombard July 20, 1920 2,569,266 Thompson Sept. 25, 1951 2,931,277 Bombard April 5, 1960 3,319,448 Bottom May 16, 1967 4,721,504 Cogswell Jan. 26, 1988 4,899,566 Knudson Feb. 13, 1990 ______________________________________
Furthermore, it is well known to use a variety of different types of forming rollers to produce different profiles. Examples of such fabrication machines, in addition to the above reference patents, may be found in the following references:
______________________________________ Patent No. Inventor Issued ______________________________________ 2,826,235 Gudmestad March 11, 1958 3,595,056 Hutton July 27, 19711 3,815,398 McClain June 11, 1974 4,487,046 Abbey Dec. 11, 1984 4,505,143 Knudson March 19, 1985 4,716,754 Youngs Jan. 5, 1988 4,787,233 Beymer Nov. 29, 1988 ______________________________________
While all of these existing machines are quite useful and effective in fabricating metal strips into shaped members, such as panels and gutters, each machine typically can only form a single profile so that a fabricator must acquire a separate machine for each profile desired to be configured. Alternatively, the entire set of forming elements may be replaced by individually detaching each forming element or, in certain cases, by replacing a forming station box comprising a set of forming rollers. Even where individual forming elements are replaced, the fabricator is still constrained to produce panels of a defined width since the forming elements are attached to discrete positions. Thus, where a fabricator wishes to manufacturer custom widths or a variety of standard widths, additional machines must be acquired or extensive modifications must be made to an existing machine. These machines are also quite bulky in size and weight so that they often require fabrication of the formed panels at a location remote from a construction site or use of a separate trailer for transport to the on-site location.
Accordingly, there remains a need for improved material forming machines which can receive an elongated strip of material to create a useful cross-section so that usable shaped members may be produced. There is further a need for machines having reduced bulk so that they can be easily transported to on-site locations. A further need remains for machines which can quickly be adjusted to create geometrically similar profiles of different dimensions.